Returning to the Tench Peg

Returning in search of tench after the perchfest was a no brainer really. I've been keeping it fed on a daily basis and had two more short sessions since, the first producing another footballer of 2-7-0.

The birdlife having become somewhat predictable with the breeding season in full flow, I have been hoping for a little more action than the odd bite, but, in my experience at The Stillwater, early morning is best for that elusive bite and I've been limited to p.m. to dusk stays. My luck at twilight has been minimal here so hope was one thing, confidence was another.

I managed to acquire some monstrous fresh maggots on Saturday and froze them down for feed but kept a few wrigglers for the hook. They were almost as large as the floating rubber ones against which they were set on a 12 to give a three inch pop-up on the lift float method.

On the tip I went for two helicopter rigs. One with a whole lob on a 10 and the other various hair-rigged baits by way of a change to see what else might be around or what might work. For the inquiring and alert reader, yes, I did just say 'hair rig', I appreciate this may be something of a shock and if you find yourself in A&E reading the tail end of this apologies are clearly in order but it's just an experiment and, as you will find below, currently actual hooked baits are leading 10-1 thus far (though they are perch, not the brightest of fish...sort of in the 'Food! Eat it!' category of intelligence really. Not like a roach...'Food, delicately presented? Oh good Lord no!'), but if you don't ask you don't find out, so find out I will.

The bites, now that I've given the game away, materialise in waves relating quite definitely to passing shoals. One wave an hour or so in a few days ago produced a brace of perch which, unbelievably to me, actually exceeded the brace of the last post. The first 3-2-0, then a lost fish on the float due to a wrapped-over live maggot (hair rig would've avoided that!), and then the third cast of the trio produced another hard-fighting fish of exactly 3lbs resulting in a ten minute brace of three pounders for precisely the same combined weight of the two I took the previous weekend at 6-2-0. Not the same fish though.

As dusk approached another burst of bites occurred. The first and third of which were lost fish inevitably due to the bony mouths of the quarry and the middle bite brought a mint one pound fish to the net and while on the canal he would be of some interest, here he was just a good looking shoal fish to be reintroduced without so much as a brief chat about his magnificence.

This weekend two brief, afternoon into evening, sessions added perch of 2-7-0 and 2-9-0 to the tally but I don't like the prospect of starting to catch the same fish and so intend to feed it differently now in hope of other species. It's a weedy venue and, having found a clear area, I don't fancy a move again and as the season progresses hopefully other shoals of other fish will move through this relatively shallow part of The Stillwater. There are a large number of fry in the area at present and, if they move, the constantly striking pike and the perch will move with them leaving other options. There is also a longer range approach to undertake if clear spots exist at any distance .

Are those tincas really out there?


Final tip...

Never leave the dog food bag unattended